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Draft of Miner's licence form of [Colony of Victoria], with amendments to suit Colony of British Columbia.

Indexed clippings regarding mining legislation, exploration and companies.

This series consists of a minute book from the Select Standing Committee on Mines minute book, 28 February 1890 - 6 February 1908, and one file of correspondence and memoranda.

The collection consists of records generated by Donald (interviewer) and Glen Treilhard (photographer) during their oral history project in 1983. Both were post-secondary students at the time and received grants from the Canada Council and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. The Treilhards interviewed and photographed 39 Canadian miners in British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. The collection includes 60 audio cassette tapes of interviews with the miners, a duo tang with project details, an index, an itinerary and interviewee list, photo and tape release forms from the interviewees and transcripts of the interviews. Audio tapes are arranged by geographical location and by date. There is also a small notebook listing the slides which are itemized by geographical location, roll number, slide number and subject. There are approximately 820 colour slides of the interviewees, their places of work and scenic views of the geographical regions through which the Treilhards travelled. There appear to be some slides listed in the index that are not in the slide binders, as well as some slides that are in the binders and that are not listed in the index. There is also a list stapled to the inside cover of the small notebook indicating which slides the Treilhards used in their project.

The series consists of a register of mining leases organized by district, created by the Provincial Gold Commissioner between 1879 and 1902.

Letterpress copies of correspondence outward from the Surveyor-General. Many of the volumes contain nominal indexes of correspondents. Volumes 26 - 31 have been water damaged and are partly illegible.

The Commissioners, David V. Bates, James W. Murray and Vaulter Raudsepp were appointed in 1979 to inquire into the adequacy of existing measures to provide protection in all aspects of uranium mining in British Columbia especially as to worker and public safety and protection of the environment. Early in 1980, the Government of British Columbia declared a moratorium on exploration for and mining of uranium. In the wake of this decision, the Commission was rescinded by order-in-council 442/80 on 27 February 1980.

The records in GR-2582 consist of: verbatim transcripts of public hearings held by the Commission (72 vols.), indexes to transcripts and statements of evidence; a witness list; and an index to the Commission's research library (the Uranium Information Centre). A published three volume Commissioners' Report is held by BC Archives Library, call number: NW 338.274932/B 862. Video tape recordings of hearings are available under accession numbers: V1981:16/122 and V1988:50/162. Additional records of the Commission, transferred in 1980, are held in GR-0882. Most of the commission's records were transferred to the BC Archives in 1980. The library of the Commission was transferred to B.C. Research in Vancouver where it became known as the Uranium Information Centre.

The collection comprises 21 films shot or produced between 1931 and 1949, mainly by the Photographic Branch of the British Columbia Government Travel Bureau. It includes prints of ten early BCGTB productions -- one silent and nine with sound -- as well as some reels of silent miscellaneous footage shot by the BCGTB. The completed BCGTB productions include travelogues about Vancouver Island, Qualicum, the Fraser Valley, the Okanagan Valley, the West and East Kootenays, the Bulkley/Skeena Region, and the route of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, as well as films about BC's mining and tourism industries. Other reels show activities of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, based in Victoria; the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco (1939); military parades in Victoria during World War Two; and outdoor activities such as hunting, skiing and trail riding.

The fonds consists of 128 photographs created by Ray Starr Goodwin. The photographs include pictures of Ray Goodwin and other members of the Goodwin and Green families of Kaslo, B.C. between ca. 1900 and 1920. There are images of Kaslo, of family members at home, at their summer camp at Beauty Beach on Kootenay Lake, camping at Greer's Beach (Kitsilano) and in Stanley Park, Vancouver.

There are also photographs of Kootenay Lake and other natural features around the Kootenay Lake and Kaslo area such as the Kokanee Glacier as well as photographs of steamboats, the Kaslo and Slocan Railway and various mines.

The series consists of the business records, 1877-1977, of the office of the Kamloops Government Agent, including the records of several additional positions usually held by the same individual: Gold Commissioner, Mining Recorder, and Land Commissioner for the Kamloops Land District. The series also includes records of the Canadian Department of the Interior; most created and received by the Dominion Lands Agent at Kamloops as part of the administration of the Railway Belt.

Record types and subject matter include, but are not limited to the following: land alienation through pre-emption or purchase from the provincial government and homesteading or purchase from the federal government; a variety of leases of Crown land; other more general types of records; and records regarding Indigenous peoples and Indian Reserves.

Records related to land alienation include: applications for pre-emption records; land classification reports; forms completed by land inspectors of the Department of Lands Inspection Branch; declarations of occupation and permanent improvement on pre-emption claims; applications for homestead entry, cancellation, and abandonment; homestead Inspector’s reports; affidavits in support of an Application for Entry for a homestead, pre-emption or purchased homestead; land sales records including applications to purchase and certificates of purchase.

Records related to a variety of leases and other uses of Crown lands include: grazing leases; foreshore leases; dredging leases; indentures to reassign leases; special use permits; timber permits; water records including conditional water licenses, and permanent water licenses; applications for irrigation schemes; petroleum and natural gas leases; quarry leases; bar leases; coal leases; mining leases regarding surface and subsurface rights; applications for lease of crown-granted mineral claims; applications for placer leases under the Placer-Mining Act; and the lapse of a lease or forfeiture of a mineral claim to the Crown.

Other more general types of records include: correspondence regarding Crown grants; inquiries about land availability; surveyor’s reports; preliminary plans and correspondence for the surveys of townships; Soldier Settlement Board records including forms, correspondence and records of soldier land grants; attestation papers and discharge certificates; naturalization papers; personal correspondence; correspondence files on specific topics such as hay permit regulations or precipitation measurements; records regarding taxes; and business records of the office, including inter-department correspondence, circulars, and memorandum related to matters of land administration.

Files also exist for specific Indian Reserves, and can include correspondence; water records; surveys; and inspection reports created in the process of allotting new, and canceling existing Indian Reserves. Some files document instances of overlapping land use and conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples on specific parcels of land.

Files are generally either correspondence files on a particular subject, or a variety of records related to a particular piece of land. Many files cover a wide time period and may be associated with multiple individuals or companies as land rights were often transferred to others or cancelled and reapplied for. Only the name of the first and last individual listed on the file is included in the file list. This means there may be additional names associated with files not included on the file list. The file list may also only include part of the legal description of land in cases where the description was exceptionally long, or included many different pieces of land. Single individuals may also have multiple files for each piece of land they are associated with.

Cartographic materials, consisting of blueprints and hand-drawn maps or plans, indicating the parcels of land relevant to the file, are commonly found throughout the records.

No file list or indexes were transferred with these records from the Kamloops Government Agent. Most files only included numbers with no clear names, so titles were created by the archives based on the contents of the files or by transcribing information on relevant file backs.

A fire on 17 September 1893 at the Dominion Lands Office in Kamloops destroyed some files. The contents for these files are marked [empty]. Files marked as [file back only] were likely destroyed in the fire, but then had their titles and some additional information transcribed by Lands employees onto file backs from letter books or other surviving records which were not transferred with these records.

This series consists of press releases, articles, speeches and other public reports created from 1932-1943. The majority of the records were created by the Minister of Mines and Deputy Minister of Mines. The records relate to all aspects of the departments work and mining in BC generally. This includes: statistical reports on provincial mining production outputs, particularly coal; the history of mining in BC; the history of the Dept. of Mines; announcements and comments on the opening or closure of mines; biographical information of department executive; considerations on the future of mining in BC; and the discussion of various issues impacting the mining industry.

This series consists of a printed report from the Mining Commission,1890-1891.

This series consists of a brief of the Mining Association of British Columbia to the premier and cabinet.

Two volumes of news clipping books, the first from 1941-1943 arranged chronologically; the second, from 1947-1951 arranged alphabetically, mainly by settlement or location, but occasionally by subject. The clippings cover most aspects of mining, including petroleum and coal, such as exploration, operation, demand, labour relations, taxation, war effort and production.

The series consists of three scrapbooks of newspaper clippings compiled by the Provincial Mineralogist between 1894 and 1934. The volumes are indexed.

The series consists of 14 volumes of clipping books created by the Dept. of Mines and Petroleum Resources, and its predecessor bodies, between 1910 and 1966 (with gaps).

The volumes contain newspaper clippings regarding mining legislation, exploration and companies and are partially indexed.

The series consists of photographs taken by or collected by the Bureau of Mines, where they were compiled into 30 photograph albums. Some of the albums, or parts of the albums, were compiled at the end of the year's work and were intended by the Provincial Mineralogist to document his annual summer field work throughout the province.

Many of the photographs were published each year in Department bulletins and in the Annual Report of the Minister of Mines. There is a coding in the albums which indicates that a photograph was used in the Annual Report. For example, “R1925 - A182” signifies that the photograph was used in the 1925 Annual Report of the Minister of Mines on page A182. Each Annual Report of the Minister contains narrative descriptions of the field trips taken by the Provincial Mineralogist and other Bureau of Mines staff, so it is possible to trace the relationship each year between these field trip narratives and the photographs.

W. Fleet Robertson (Provincial Mineralogist from 1898 to 1925) took some of the photographs. Beginning ca. 1906, Harold T. Nation was an assistant to the Provincial Mineralogist, and travelled with him on his summer field trips, taking photographs, compiling many of the photo albums and indexing them. Exceptions were the years 1914-1917, when Nation served in the military in Europe, after which he returned to his former position. Others from the Bureau of Mines who contributed to the creation of the albums include: W.A. Carlyle, (W. Fleet Robertson's predecessor as Provincial Mineralogist); J.D. Galloway (Robertson's successor); Herbert Carmichael (an Assistant Mineralogist); and Newton W. Emmens. They took photographs or directed that photos be taken to document their work in the field. Many photographs are labeled “B.C. Bureau of Mines” but the photographer is not identified.

Some of the albums, or parts of albums, appear to have been compiled, not an annual basis, but at a later date, and were labeled “miscellaneous.” They relate to the mining industry, geology, mineralogy, and local culture, but are not related to the annual field trips. The Provincial Mineralogist's office collected some of these from private sources including mining companies and miners. Professional photographers whose work is found in the albums include: R.J. Hughes (Trail, BC), Hughes Bros. (Trail, BC), Joseph F. Spalding (Fernie, BC), Carpenter & Co. (Rossland, BC), Carpenter & Millar (Rossland, BC), The Dominion Photo Company (Vancouver), Richard H. Trueman (R.H. Trueman & Co., Vancouver), E.F. Tucker, and Leonard Frank. There are a small number of photos taken by Charles Camsell of the Geological Survey of Canada, 1911, so it is possible others were taken by federal government employees.

Subjects include a very wide range of industrial and cultural activities and geographic features. These include: mines and mining operations and equipment; mining camps, prospectors, miners' houses, powder magazines, first aid teams, fire brigades, mine rescue squads and stations; immigrant workers; refineries, smelters, coke ovens, concentrators, brickyards, slag dumps and tailings; railways and rail trestles; boats, scows, ships, and dredging; landscape and terrain features including rivers and mountain ranges; mining industry towns, schools, hospitals, hotels, churches, government offices and wireless offices; First Nations activities and culture, including totem poles, grave sites, and villages; whaling and whaling stations; horse pack trains, Hudson's Bay Company posts; and conferences and congresses attended by Bureau of Mines staff.

Many of the photos are annotated with directions for the printing/publication process. Many are pieced together to create panoramas. Some albums have accompanying individual indexes and some have been indexed in the master alphabetical index.

Container No. Photograph Album
001302-0001 -- Bureau of Mines photographs miscellaneous album, H.T. Nation [album misc. B] ca. 188-?-1919
001302-0002 -- Bureau of Mines D : photographs ca. 189-?-1917
001302-0003 -- B.C. Bureau of Mines [E] miscellaneous photographs compiled from October 1927
001302-0004 -- 1895 Bureau of Mines
001302-0005 -- 1896 Bureau of Mines
001302-0006 -- Bureau of Mines, 1897-1898
001302-0007 -- Bureau of Mines photos 1898, 1899, 1900
001302-0008 -- Dept. of Mines, 1901, 1899-1901
001302-0009 -- Bureau of Mines 1902
001302-0010 -- Bureau of Mines, 1903, Victoria, B.C., 1903-1904
001302-0011 -- Photographs : 1905
001302-0012 -- Peace River and other trips in 1906 by W.F. Robertson and H. Carmichael, 1906
001302-0013 -- 1907 Bureau of Mines, Victoria B.C., 1906-1907
001302-0014 -- 1908 photos by Bureau of Mines, Victoria B.C., 1908-1909
001205-0001 -- Bureau of Mines photos collected during 1909
001302-0015 -- Odd photos collected in the Provincial Mineralogist's office, entered Nov. 1910
001302-0016 -- Summer trip of the Provincial Mineralogist to the Bulkley and Telkwa Rivers and the Slocan Mining Division, 1911; 1934
001302-0017 -- Provincial Mineralogist trip to Cassiar, 1912, 1911-1912
001302-0018 -- Photos for 1913 report, taken by W.F. Robertson, B.G. Forbes, W.M. Brewer, J.D. Galloway
001302-0019 -- Photographs taken in 1914
001302-0020 -- Dept. of Mines album 1915
001302-0021 -- Photographs : Dept. of Mines album 1916
001302-0022 -- Photographs : Bureau of Mines 1917-1918-1919
001302-0023 -- Photographs : Bureau of Mines 1920-21
001302-0024 -- Photos received at the Bureau of Mines during 1921 & 1922, compiled by Harold T. Nation
001302-0025 -- 1923 current photos, Bureau of Mines, 1920-1925
001302-0026 -- Dept. of Mines album : photos 1925 continued, 1926, 1925-1926
001302-0027 -- Bureau of Mines photographs 1926 (continued), 1927, 1922-1928
001302-0028 -- Bureau of Mines, Victoria, B.C. misc. photos, compiled by Harold T. Nation, 1927 [misc. album C], 1895-1927
001302-0029 -- Bureau of Mines photographs, 1926-1930, 1966
001302-0030 -- Dept. of Mines album 1930, [ca. 1930-1936]

This series contains letterpress reference books of surveyed land, usually including name of land holder and lot number. The entries are arranged by land district for each reporting date. These lists were published later as notices in the British Columbia Gazette. These books were used by the Dept. of Lands to record file numbers and other information concerning the process.

This series contains central records of the Branch, relating to the regulation of mining leases, inter-provincial conferences on mining, legislation, minerals and processing, public education, grants, mining associations, statistics and parks. The records consist of correspondence, memoranda and reports.

This series contains legal opinions offered by Attorney General on a wide range of subjects. For more information on the subjects covered, please consult the attached finding aid.

The fonds consists of correspondence and diaries of Marshall Bond. It also includes copies of Bond's photographs.

The series consists of correspondence inward of the Provincial Mineralogist from 1898 to 1933. The files include correspondence, statistical returns and reports.

This series consists of records of the Department of Lands and Forests, Lands Service, primarily relating to leases of Crown land for various purposes. Records include cancelled or expired leases for oyster beds (including leases by the Government of Canada), hay meadow, summer resort, stone quarry, mill, coal mining, grazing, agriculture, cattle ranching, and pastoral purposes. This series also includes final agreements for sale and purchase under Soldier's Better Housing Scheme for City of Victoria lots (includes rebate applications and discharge certificates) and licences of occupation.

The series consists of records created by the Atlin Gold Commissioner between 1898 and 1945. Records include correspondence inward and outward, mining and water records, and gold commissioner's court records.

The series consists of records created by the Cassiar Gold Commissioner between 1873 and 1931. It includes correspondence outward, mining and water records and photocopies of gold commissioner's court records originally created 1876-1888.

Series consists of photographs created or acquired by the Resource Management Branch of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and its predecessor bodies, between 1929 and 1991. Most of the photographs are glued onto pages that formed an appendix to an inspection report. These appendices were separated from the reports and stored separately. The original reports may still be with the Ministry. Researchers should also compare them to the Ministry of Mines annual reports. In addition to the appendices, which often include captions and other accompanying material, the files contain hundreds of loose photographs, including prints, negatives, slides and polaroids in both colour and black and white. The photographs are of mines throughout British Columbia and include aerial views, mine rescue teams, machinery and equipment, reclamation work, bridges and roads and dangerous occurrences and accidents. The series also includes portions of the inspection reports and other accompanying textual information.

This series consists of administrative records related to the Mineral Development Agreement. Records were created or used by the Mineral Policy Branch and Geological Survey Branch of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources from 1984-1990.

The Mineral Development Agreement was a subsidiary agreement part of a larger Economic and Regional Development Agreement made between the BC government and Canadian government. The agreement was intended to coordinate the two government’s efforts to strengthen and diversify the mineral industry in BC. The agreement outlined what programs and responsibilities each government had for managing and developing mineral resources in the province, including surveying and exploration. Records relate to the creation, implementation, administration and evaluation of this agreement.

Records include minutes, correspondence, financial records, forms, reports, and final and draft agreements.

Records selected for permanent retention under the Administrative Records Classification Schedule.

This series consists of mine development assessment process files for coal and metal mine projects from 1974-1986. The records relate to the review and approval of proposed mining projects in BC. They document the determination of legal conditions under which companies may build and operate major mines. This process was called the mine development review process. The records show the ways that different projects were treated and provide evidence of a company’s level of compliance with their agreed development conditions.

Some of the early records were created by the Environmental and Land Use Committee (ELUC) of Cabinet. After around 1979, the majority of records are created by either the Coal Guidelines Steering Committee (CGSC) or the Metal Mines Steering Committee (MMSC). These committees were primarily part of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, but worked with the ELUC and other ministries to approve projects.

Projects may be reviewed by the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Forests, Ministry of Lands, Ministry of Transportation and Highways, Ministry of the Provincial Secretary, Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Health and federal bodies such as Environment Canada.

Companies may have been required to conduct research and provide reports on potential impacts of the project in compliance with the guidelines for coal development or procedures for obtaining approval of metal mine development

The assessment process involved consideration of many factors in developing a mine. Potential issues include: water management; acid generation; fish and wildlife impacts; air pollution; air monitoring; waste management; geotechnical impacts; ground and surface water impacts; pollution control; permit acquisition; radioactivity assessment; reclamation plans; road construction; heritage impact assessments; public opinions; and socioeconomic impacts on nearby communities.

Records include correspondence, policy, procedures, meeting minutes, reports, maps, newspaper clippings, photos, reports and technical data. Many records are copies of originals which were provided to multiple committee members for reference.

The records are divided into several groups: Metal Mines Steering Committee files, coal files, southeast coal projects, northeast coal projects and Coal Guidelines Steering Committee records. Within these groupings, files are arranged alphabetically by the name of project.

The records are scheduled under one time schedule 880049.

This series consists of records related to the administration, management and alienation of land in the New Westminster land district from 1882-1978. The records were primarily created by the provincial Government Agent and the Dominion Land Agent stationed in New Westminster. The majority of these records are homestead files created by the dominion government. These files contain information about homesteaders, their applications and the process of obtaining title to land.

Record types and subject matter include, but are not limited to: land alienation through pre-emption or purchase from the provincial government and homesteading or purchase from the federal government; a variety of leases of Crown land; other general subject files; and records regarding Indigenous Peoples or Indian Reserves.

Records related to land alienation include: applications for pre-emption, purchase or lease; land classification reports; forms completed by land inspectors of the Department of Lands Inspection Branch; declarations of occupation and permanent improvement on pre-emption claims; applications for homestead entry, cancellation, and abandonment; homestead Inspector’s reports; affidavits in support of an Application for Entry; land sales records; correspondence with settlers and other government officials; patents; Crown Grants; certificates; forms; maps and plans; financial records including receipts and cheques; court records, such as probates; survey records; notices of sale or cancellation; and sale agreements.

Records related to leases and other uses of Crown land include: grazing leases; foreshore leases; dredging leases; special use permits; timber permits; timber berths; water licenses; applications for dyking schemes; campsite leases; oyster bed leases; right-of-ways (ROWs) through land for railways, roads, powerlines or pipelines; petroleum and natural gas leases; quarry leases; bar leases; coal leases; mining leases; and mineral claims. Other uses include government reserves, the establishment of parks, and the reservation of land for school sites or other public uses.

Other more general subject files include: inquiries about land availability; preliminary plans and correspondence for the survey and sale of townsites; Soldier Settlement Board records including forms, correspondence and records of soldier land grants; correspondence files on specific topics such as canal construction, the reclamation of Hatzic Lake, the draining of Sumas Lake and the establishment of fish culture and fish hatcheries; and business records of the office, including inter-department correspondence, circulars, and memorandum related to matters of land administration.

Files also exist for specific Indian Reserves, and can include correspondence; water records; surveys; and inspection reports created in the process of allotting new, and canceling or amending existing Indian Reserves. Some files document instances of overlapping land use and conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples on specific parcels of land.

Files are generally either correspondence files on a particular subject, or a variety of records related to a particular piece of land. Many files cover a wide time period and may be associated with multiple individuals or companies, as land rights were often transferred to others or cancelled and reapplied for.

Only the name of the first individual listed on the file is included in the file list. This means there may be additional names associated with files not included on the file list. The file list may also only include part of the legal description of land in cases where the description was exceptionally long, or included many different pieces of land. Single individuals may also have multiple files for each piece of land they are associated with.

The series also includes some files related to land in the Yale Division and Kamloops Division of the Yale Land District; as well as the Lillooet Land District. These records were created in the offices of the Kamloops and Clinton Government Agents, but at some point became intermingled with the New Westminster records.

Maps, plans and sketches indicating the parcels of land relevant to the file are commonly found throughout the records.

This series consists of a ledger and general record book, 1859-1871. The creator of the volume is not clear, but was likely the Government Agent who worked in or around Lytton. The volume was used for several purposes overtime. It includes the following types of information: list of pre-emptions for Lytton City; mining licences, free miner's certificates, liquor licences, trading licences, garden plots and ground rentals from the Lytton area (Fraser Canyon to Kamloops); records of miners and storekeepers occupying Crown land as garden plots and residences throughout the Fraser Canyon area; copies of bridge toll agreements and ferry operation contracts for places on the Fraser River, Thompson River, Nicola River, Savonna's ferry, Anderson River and Bridge River.